By AppleInsider Staff
Published: 09:00 AM EST (06:00 AM PST)
Canadians will get their first taste of a high-profile Apple retail store this weekend when the iPhone maker takes the wraps off a spacious, double-decker flagship shop in downtown Montreal. The company will also open its first store in South Carolina and its fifth in Arizona.
Apple Store Sainte-Catherine
In a little under a year, Apple has transformed a gloomy, tree obscured MENS fashion retail outlet at 1321 Ste-Catherine Ouest into a bright and airy two-story flagship shop aimed at luring shoppers passing through the heart of Montreal.
Massive glass panels framed by grey limestone serve as a giant window into the store, offering wall-to-wall street views of its interior. Inside, the store is clad in stainless steel and shoppers will find all the amenities of a typical Apple flagship shop, including a glass staircase and sprawling second-floor Genius Bar.
Apple is believed to have signed a $1.2 million annual lease on the 9,300-square-foot property, which sits just blocks from McGill University and within striking distance of Montreal's 3.6 million other residents.
However, alternations noted in
AppleInsider's breaking reports (
1,
2) on the flagship shop last summer suggest usable retail space will come in around 8,000 square feet when store finally
opens for business on Friday at 5:00 p.m. Among those alterations were spaces cordoned off for offices, a back-end stock room, and bathroom facilities.
Apple also raised the ground floor slightly, relocated a couple of structural columns near the store's entrance, and threw down a new roof. Photos comparing the space before and after the renovations can be seen after the glamour shot, below.
Apple Store Sainte-Catherine will open in Montreal this Friday at 5:00 p.m.
Apple Store Sainte-Catherine before (left) and after (right).
Separately, Apple will open both Apple Store King Street -- South Carolina's first -- and Apple Store Arrowhead -- Arizona's fifth -- on Saturday, July 26 at 10:00 a.m. local time.
